DictionaryAI

phoenix

USFEE-niks/ˈfiːnɪks/

Pluralphoenix, phoenixes, phoenices

6 meanings of phoenix

Practice

  1. 1
    fire birdnouncountable
    A bird in old stories that lives for 500 years, then burns and is born again from its ashes.

    In the story, the phoenix makes a nest of sweet wood and waits for the sun.

    The book has a picture of a phoenix rising out of the flames.

    Note
  2. 2
    comebacknounfigurativelycountable
    Something that comes back to life after it seemed to be destroyed.

    Everyone thought the old theater was finished, but it opened again, a true phoenix.

    After the war, the broken town was built again, a phoenix from the ashes.

    UsageSay something rose like a phoenix.

    Note
  3. 3
    Chinese birdnouncountable
    A magic bird in Chinese stories, made from parts of different animals, whose body stands for six objects in the sky.

    Her red Chinese wedding dress had a gold phoenix and a dragon on it.

    Old Chinese legends say a phoenix appears only in times of peace.

    Note

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    wondernounobsolete
    A person or thing that is amazing and very special.
    He may not be a phœnix of cleverness in your sense; his profession is different; but it would be all the better for you to talk a little on his subjects.
    1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], MiddlemarchHere, phœnix means a person so remarkable they seem like a marvel.
    Note
  2. 5
    verbAustralia
    To move a company's money and property to another company to avoid paying what it owes.
  3. 6
    noun
    A silver coin used in Greece only from 1828 to 1832, worth 100 lepta.
    The national currency, the phoenix, which had been established by Kapodistrias, was renamed after an ancient Greek coin, the drachma.
    2019, Roderick Beaton, Greece: Biography of a Modern NationHere, phoenix means a Greek silver coin used for only a few years.

Practice

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Origin

The word goes back through Latin and Greek, possibly to an Egyptian word for the grey heron, a bird linked in Egypt with life starting again.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts